Thursday, July 13, 2017

A new argument from Michelle Cretella for a Catholic outlet

Michelle Cretella is on a crusade to convince peoplethat gender dysphoria does not exist

Thursday, at National Catholic Register, Marcia Segelstein writes “What if Your Child is “Gender Confused?” At the top of the piece is a photo of Jazz Jennings captioned “Jazz Jennings, a teenage boy who has gained fame for presenting himself as a female on his YouTube channel…” Segelstein's polemic is an interview with Michelle Cretella who a) is not currently a licensed physician and; b) has no expertise or experience treating pediatric gender dysphoria. Once people start writing about “confusion” you can be certain that their piece is religious dogma in contrast to anything remotely serious about human sexuality.

I am not going to repeat what I have already written about Dr. Michelle Cretella who is the leader of American College of Pediatricians. For the record ACPeds is a tiny splinter organization. The real peer organization is the American Academy of Pediatrics. The Southern Poverty Law Center designates American College of Pediatricians a hate group. My last take-down of Cretella was pretty comprehensive. She is just one more anti-LGBT hate group leader.

New “material” is this paragraph:

Prior to 2013 most physicians and therapists treated it [gender dysphoria] as a clear-cut disorder and it was estimated that less than 1% of children would present with gender identity confusion or disorder. The United Kingdom has seen a 930% increase in the number of children referred to gender clinics in the last six years, including some as young as 3 and 4. There have been astronomical increases around the world, including in the US and Canada. And it makes sense because we’re bombarded by the lies in social media, on TV, in newspapers and magazines, and in schools. As much as activists say people are born this way, we know that if that were the case, we wouldn’t be seeing such a huge increase just from an affirming environment. This is a social phenomenon.

That 930% increase in referrals is actually accurate. However, it is highly misleading. Segelstein cites a Catholic blog but the original source is the BBC.

While there is a difference between 94 and 969 referrals, 969 kids is insignificant. There are roughly 15 million kids in the UK under the age of 19. 969 is 0.0065% of that population. “Some as young as 3 or 4” amounts to 25 children. I have no idea how many of these kids were treated with gender affirming methods — and neither does Cretella. The kids were referred for an evaluation, not treatment. It is safe to assume that none of these children were referred due to social media. It's not a fad.

Indeed, the percentage of children with gender dysphoria is probably the same as it was 20 years ago. The percentage that are being properly treated is higher. The same is true of just about any medical condition where there are advances in treatment protocols. Children were certainly not referred to gender clinics in the UK because of stories in periodicals and activists.

The intent of this BS is to suggest that there is a fad, a rising tide of trans kids. The increase in referrals represents the growing awareness of gender dysphoria among primary care physicians and pediatricians. The next to last sentence bears repeating:

As much as activists say people are born this way, we know that if that were the case, we wouldn’t be seeing such a huge increase just from an affirming environment.

Nonsense. Utter bullshit. For example, far more people are being treated for hepatitis C than ten years ago because far more treatments are available. The same is true with gender dysphoria. Ten years ago doctors tried to prevent kids from being trans in the hope that they would grow out of it. They did not grow out of it and with more research we are treating the same kids better and more substantially. As I said this is more Catholic dogma from Cretella than scientific logic.

One last quote because I cannot resist:

This is a massive uncontrolled social experiment going on with our children right now. We know that in the years prior to promoting the gender transition of young children the vast majority of them, up to 95% of cases, would identify as their biological sex once they passed through puberty.

We know no such thing. I defy Cretella to support that statement with current peer-reviewed research. She cannot because it comes from dated and flawed studies from nearly 40 years ago. 40 years ago gender identity was often regarded as a component of sexual orientation. Then there is this gem:

Speaking as a mother and a Catholic, I consider it evil. If children cannot learn to trust the reality of their own bodies, how will they have the capacity to evaluate any other part of reality? To disrupt the core identity of young children in this way desecrates the image of God within them.

Okay so it wasn't one last quote. Cretella just denied the very existence of gender dysphoria. Just one more (and this time I mean it):

In the psychiatric literature it is well documented that many families with gender confused children have family dysfunction. Examples include an overbearing mother, distant father, severe depression in the mother, anger management problems in the father, and divorce. Divorce is a factor particularly with teenage girls who did not have gender confusion previously. As an example, you have a divorce situation in which the mom was very beaten down physically, emotionally, or both. And dad is very aggressive. The daughter will perceive being female as being weak and unlovable. Subconsciously she wants to be strong, safe and loved, so her subconscious mind defends itself by believing she is a man. Her subconscious mind has learned that men are strong and don’t get hurt. If she is a man, she is not like her mother. She may say to herself subconsciously, “I’m strong like my dad. This is how I’m going to survive. This is how I will be loved.” Obviously this is not conscious, but it may come out in long term therapy. So the psychiatric literature confirms that family dysfunction can play a role in gender confused children.

Blah, blah blah. They say the same bullshit about gay people in order to avoid the proposition that their god makes a sexually diverse population of kids. This is all nonsense because there is no known medical intervention to reverse or reduce gender dysphoria. This woman hasn't practiced medicine in about six years. She was an ignoramus six years ago. She has managed to improve the state of her ineptitude by being even more clueless.